After a lovely, relaxed home breakfast with our hosts, Frank drove us to the train station in Kiel. But from there, it was all trains, all day. We boarded our first train in Kiel just after 10, which was supposed to take us to Hamburg. We were at the station early, and there was a train on the next track over, and an announcer said, “If you want to get to Hamburg earlier, go on that train.” Well, we should have listened, but we stuck with our original plan and schedule. About halfway there, there was an announcement to say that the train was not going to make it all the way, so we had to get off two stops early, and switch trains. Which meant a delay. By some miracle, the train we were meeting in Hamburg was also a bit delayed, so we were able to catch it. But we were not so lucky with the next connection, because that train, that would take us to Amsterdam, was not so late. So we missed that connection.
We went to the Deutsche Bahn office at the station, and explained the situation. The man there kindly told us that there was another train 2 hours later. When we asked if we could reserve seats (you are supposed to reserve seats on the ICE — InterCity Express — trains) on the later train, we were informed that this was impossible, since seats must be reserved the day before at the latest! The clerk didn’t seem to sense the disconnect between our missing the scheduled train due to a delay in the previous train and them not accommodating us. When asked if we could just board the train, we were told we must check with the conductor first! And he would decide if we could board the train.
Well, after considering many options (use “local” trains that don’t require a seat reservation, but which would get us in very late if all those connections worked; stay the night in a hotel and reserve seats on a train the next day; etc.) we decided to risk it and simply board the train, and either stand in the space between cars, or try to find 2 unclaimed seats near each other, which seemed unlikely since everything was telling us that all seats were reserved. In the end, we were able to find two unreserved seats across from each other (imagine that!), and were able to get to Amsterdam. From there, a local Nederlandse Spoorwegen train took us the final hour out to Enkhuisen, and we got to our hotel (4 minute walk from the train station) at 9:30, after eleven and a half hours of train travel (and station waiting).
Tomorrow will be an exciting day, after we lug our luggage to the boat! We board at 4:00 p.m., but stay in port for the night, after getting settled in, having whatever orientation is needed, getting fitted for our bikes, and having dinner together. We will do a little sightseeing in Enkuisen before heading that way. Until then!
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